Saskatchewan Aviation Chronology 1950-59

1950, November: the RCAF announced it would open a flying training school
at the Saskatoon airport. (See: History of Canadian Airports by Tom McGrath,
page 210.)

1952, Jan. 1: The RCAF’s 1 Advanced Flying School opened at RCAF
Station Saskatoon with B-25 Mitchells. The first pilots arrived Feb. 4 and the
first Beech C-45 Expeditors on April 16. See Best In The West historical
addendum

August -- The RCAF announced that No. 2 Flying Training School,
then at Gimli, Man., would move to the reactivated station at Moose Jaw in
1953. This move, dubbed "Operation Gimjaw", was accomplished in May,
1953. See Best In The West, pages 85-86. 2 FTS aircraft carried the code
letters "XS".

1954, April 8 -- 6,000 feet over Moose Jaw, an RCAF Harvard from
Moose Jaw's 2 FTS, flown by an RAF trainee pilot, collided in mid-air with a
Trans-Canada Airlines North Star flying from Winnipeg to Calgary. The total
death toll was 37: 31 passengers, the TCA crew of four, the Harvard's pilot and
a woman in a house destroyed by falling wreckage.

A subsequent inquiry concluded, in the absence of other evidence,
that the Harvard’s pilot, acting P/O Thomas Andrew Thorrat likely had been
studying his map or filling out his logbook when he rammed the airliner. See
Best In The West, pages 108-111. This semi-official history complained about
"sensational" press reporting, but conceded Jan. 6, 1955 saw a
"near-miss" between another Harvard and TCA North Star. Newspaper
accounts of the 1954 crash noted a complaint by the head of the TCA pilots'
union concerning RCAF aviators "buzzing" airliners. One result of the
1954 collision and the near-miss was the Department of Transport’s decision to
move the "airway" along which airliners traveled well north of Moose
Jaw, while RCAF training was focused south of the city.

Aug. 12, 1954 - A B-25 Mitchell from Saskatoon's 406 (Auxiliary)
Squadron crashed during a night-time hailstorm near Simpson, roughly halfway
between Regina and Saskatoon. All three crewmen aboard the bomber were killed:
pilot S/L Neville Barson, co-pilot F/L Frank Klassen and radio operator F/O
Victor Loewen. So fierce was the late evening hailstorm that many crops in the
area were wiped out; there was speculation that the aircraft was hit by
lightning. The downed Mitchell, which had been flying from Regina to Saskatoon,
left a crater 20 feet deep. (Source: "Three RCAF officers die in bomber
crash", The Leader-Post, Aug. 13, 1954.) All three officer left wives and
children; Barson was an Australian who had trained during the Second World War
at Saskatoon, married and returned there after the war.

January 6, 1955 -- A Saskatchewan Government Airways Avro
Anson crashed and burned while landing at Buffalo Narrows, killing eight
people, including pilot Stuart Millar and five children. It was the first fatal
accident in the Crown corporation’s eight years of existence. A subsequent
coroner’s inquest returned an "open verdict", though SGA personnel
testified the most probable cause was a bird strike on the windshield, blinding
the pilot and causing him to instinctively pull up when the aircraft was already
at stalling speed. (Sources: "Eight die in SGA crash," The
Leader-Post, Jan. 6, 1955 and "SGA crash jury returns open verdict",
Leader-Post, March 12, 1955.)

1955 -- Floyd Glass, former general manager of Saskatchewan
Government Airways, set up his own firm, Athabaska Airways -- which was still
operating robustly 45 years later.

1955 -- a new airport terminal building was built and opened in
Saskatoon. In the same year, the City of Saskatoon declined a federal
invitation to take over operation of the airport. In the same year, though,
Regina accepted a similar offer.

1955 - Sept. 5. - At a Labour Day gathering at the Estevan
Airport, 32 people decided to create a Saskatchewan chapter of the National
Flying Farmers. The officers elected were Abe Berdy of Estevan (president), Art
Smalley of Windthorst (1st VP), Mrs. Ana Cederholm of Oxbow (2nd VP), Jim
Sheridan of Rosetown (3rd VP) and Stan Slotsve of Torquay (secretary).

The idea
had came about in an unusual way: Kenneth Butler, a senor official of the
National Flying Farmers in the U.S., had used his light aircraft to take a
fishing trip in northern Saskatchewan in July 1955. While stopping for fuel at
Estevan on his return, he struck up a conversation with local aviators and
"planted" the idea of forming a chapter, noting an Alberta group of
Flying Farmers had been started the previous February. Source: The Sky Is The
Limit -- A 25-Year History of the Saskatchewan Flying Farmers, page 6. The
U.S.-based National Flying Farmers changed its name to International Flying
Farmers in 1961.

1956 Jan. 23 -- Saskatoon’s 1 AFS takes on the instrument
flying training role. See Best In The West historical addendum

1957 -- Canadian Pacific Airlines swapped routes with upstart
Pacific Western Airlines. In return for giving CPA its Kitimat-Terrace run, PWA
received CPA’s DEW Line resupply operations, plus its
Edmonton-Lloydminster-North Battleford-Prince Albert-Saskatoon-Moose Jaw-Regina
service, using a DC-3. See Peter Pigott’s book Wing Walkers: A History of Canadian
Airlines International, Page 205.

1957, April 6 -- Dr. E.A. McCusker, Liberal candidate for Regina in the
upcoming federal election and also a pioneer member of the municipal air board
(which oversaw the Regina airport) announced that work would start soon on a new
$800,000 terminal building at the airport. The work would be undertaken in
three stages, tenders being called for foundations and footings in May, for
steel work in June and for the superstructure in August. The building was to be
constructed as a winter project in an attempt to provide off-season employment
for construction workers. Source: The Leader-Post, Monday, April 8, 1957 page 3

1957, October -- Canadian Pacific Airlines, having handed over its money-losing Edmonton-Regina
route to Pacific Western Airlines under a package of route and service rationalizations, applied to
return to Saskatchewan’s two largest cities via a package of new
transcontinental services using DC-6Bs. Although other routes were granted,
these Saskatchewan ones were not. (See page Wing Walkers, Pages 210-217 and
Wings Over The West, Page 137-138)

1958, December 8 -- B-25 Mitchell trainers retired from Saskatoon's 1 AFS. See Best
In The West historical addendum

1959, July 1 -- The RCAF's Central Flying School moved from Trenton to
Saskatoon, joining 1 AFS and 406 Squadron there.

Meanwhile, the service's Flying Instructor School
headquarters moved from Saskatoon to RCAF Station Moose Jaw. See Best In The West, page 119 and,
especially, its historical addendum.